And Dogma Continues: Somerset Wetlands trust

 Somerset Wetlands post (and image):

Another spectacular former resident of the Somerset Levels today - the wild cat (Felis sylvestris). European wildcats once lived all over Britain, including the Levels. Nowadays they are confined to a handful of individuals in the Scottish Highlands, and will not recover without help, and space to thrive. www.somersetwildlands.org/support

Wild cats are superficially similar to domestic cats (which are descended from an African wildcat) and the two can interbreed. Their numbers have also been greatly reduced by persecution. Once widespread they were gone from Southern England by 1800.

Breeding with domestic cats has long been seen as the main threat to wild cats. There is increasing evidence though that the animals avoid each other if they can, so while hybridisation may occur, healthy populations of wild cats can continue to exist. https://www.theguardian.com/.../how-wildcats-will-be...

Like the pine marten, eagle and many others, the loss of wildcats from much of Britain is an example of how a once widespread mid-sized predator has been removed from the ecosystem. Their return might increase competition for other mid-sized predators like foxes and badgers.

Currently plans are underway to breed pure populations of wildcats with the ultimate aim of reintroducing them to England and Wales. Preliminary studies have suggested that the South West of England could be a good candidate. https://www.vwt.org.uk/.../WildcatFeasibilityReportFeb202...

Our friend and sometimes collaborator Peter Cooper has very much been involved in some of this planning and research. https://twitter.com/PeteMRC.../status/1023834768029503488...

My response:

NO. Totally incorrect. Firstly the image is NOT of a wildcat. A feral cat maybe. Felicide for money (bounties paid for adult and kitten heads) took place from the middle ages until the actual extinction of the wild cat from England, Scotland and Wales. 

Many books and articles from the 17th -19th centuries point out that the only reason wild cats had survived so long was BECAUSE of the breeding with feral domestics. The cats called wild cats today are feral tabby cats and there is taxidermy of what the wild cat looked like in the early 1800s. In 1897 the Scottish Naturalists and Zoologists declared that the "true" wild cat had become extinct by 1860. This is all fully documented. 

"Re-introducing" means importing cats from Europe so that they would NOT be British wild cats but an introduced species. In many parts of England hares, deer as well as foxes were made extinct to over hunting ('sport') with the result that these species had to be imported from Europe. This is all fully documented. 

"Even introducing a species such as European wild cats would still mean they would be shot, snared, poisoned as the current feral cats are -red squirrels and badgers are "protected" by law and are still killed with relative impunity. 

"I set up the Wild Cats and Ferals Study in 1980s and accepted the dogma that still persists. There is no such thing as a still existing Scottish wild cat."

 I ought to have pointed out that wild cats in England had not "died out" by 1800. That is a false date rather like 1600 often quoted.  I should have also pointed out that a group has been releasing pairs of wild cats (European) around England (possibly Wales) since the early 1990s and this is a quite open 'secret' so introducing European wild cats to areas with European wild cats might present problems.

Okay, I have around 50 years more knowledge on this than most and I am still learning more from archives but it seems that accepting dogma as fact means spending far less time straining the brain.